A MOTHER and her two children cheated death when their home was gutted in a mystery blaze.

Firefighters battled for more than four hours as flames swept through the end terrace.

Police investigators are sifting through the rubble of Tuesday's fire at The Glen in Palacefields. The incident is being treated as suspicious.

Firefighters had to search the property in the belief there were people trapped inside.

Sue McMahon, 35, the neighbour who raised the alarm at 4am, said: 'I heard a big pop and a bang. It was so loud I thought it was something to do with the petrol station, but when I looked out the back window I could see white smoke billowing from the kitchen window of the house. I got my five-year-old daughter out of the house and called the fire brigade.'

The occupants, a 21-year-old mother and her children, aged three and one, were staying elsewhere.

'If there had been anyone in the house at the time, they would have had no chance,' said a firefighter at the scene.

A spokeswoman for Cheshire Constabulary said: 'Police are treating the fire as suspicious.'